This wine from Pascual Toso is the fruit of a project the winery started in 2001 to find parcels of exceptionally fine fruit on their estates. After tasting blind samples of wine made from 300 separate vineyard plots the team alighted on the Syrah made from the Barrancas vineyard and decided that the quality here was “muy alta” (very high). So they started releasing the wine made from these grapes to the general public. We can be pleased they did and this wine (which spent 12 months in American oak barrels) shows concentrated ripe dark fruits as well as chocolate, anise, toast, and vanilla. It will keep for a decade after the vintage and should be kept as an alternative to fine Malbec – for which it is more than apt as a substitute.